« Westminster’s main parties were last night forced to agree to review their whips’ ‘dirt books’ and disclose any evidence of child abuse. The Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties all said that they would trawl disciplinary records of current and former MPs and pass any relevant material to a new inquiry into a possible institutional failure to protect children from paedophiles. That inquiry, set to be one of the largest ever held, will be carried out by Baroness Butler-Sloss, the former president of the family division of the high court, it was announced yesterday. »

Speaking on the Today programme this morning, Peter Wanless, the chief executive of the NSPCC who is heading the separate review into the Home Office’s handling of documents relating to these alleged historic sex crimes, told the Today programme he believed that a person who is told about child abuse and « does nothing about it » should face prosecution.

« Thirty years ago last month, speculation about a paedophile ring inside the British political establishment went global – not for the first time. The Toronto Globe and Mail was one of the newspapers to report on it… In those days, it would seem that adultery, homosexuality, sadomasochism and the abuse of children were all lumped under one heading of things people really should not do, some of which were illegal. »

— Airstrikes have killed 46 people in Gaza since Israel’s military offensive started Monday, Palestinian officials say.

AMERICA THE APPALLING TRUTH : FOR AMERICAN WOMEN, THE PRICE OF COLLEGE COMES WITH A ONE-IN-FIVE CHANCE OF BEING SEXUALLY ASSAULTED. UNBELIEVABLE !

A Letter from Kirsten Gillibrand

A month from now, young men and women across our country will head off to college.

Our students should be worried about selecting their major, meeting their freshman year roommate and learning which foods to avoid in the dining hall –but the appalling truth is that for American women, the price of college comes with a one-in-five chance of being sexually assaulted.

What’s more, many colleges and universities are failing to hold assailants accountable: Some survivors drop out of college altogether while their attackers graduate, and others are forced to attend classes and live in dormitories alongside their assailants. That’s a far cry from the safe environment our students deserve.

We have to put a stop to this, and I am currently working on legislation to combat the problem. But right now, one of the most pressing issues we face is lack of awareness about this nationwide crisis.

C. Ray Nagin, the former mayor of New Orleans who was convicted in February on corruption charges, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday in federal court in New Orleans.

Mr. Nagin was found guilty in February on 20 counts, most relating to kickbacks from contractors looking for city work. Judge Ginger Berrigan of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana will determine the sentence, which could be lengthy even if she mostly hews to federal sentencing guidelines.

Mr. Nagin, a Democrat, was arrested in January 2013, nearly three years after he left office. He was charged with taking kickbacks in the form of cash, cross-country trips or help with the family-run granite countertop company; the bribes were handed out by men looking for city business ranging from software supplies to sidewalk repair. Many of the schemes, though not all, took place after Hurricane Katrina, when contractors crowded into the city for rebuilding work.